Phase-out of sex-change funding a ‘reactionary move’: researcher

Alberta Health and Wellness plans end of program by 2014-15

By Jodie Sinnema, edmontonjournal.com

EDMONTON — People who have already had voluntary mastectomies or have started hormone therapy that has irreversibly led them to change sexes will be eligible to have their transgender surgery paid for by the province if they apply by July 31.

Funding for up to 20 people will remain in place for the sex-change surgeries until 2014-15, when the cash will dry up from Alberta Health and Wellness.

That phase-out, far longer than anticipated when the program was originally cut in the 2009 budget, shows a lack of planning by the government and a wish to have human rights complaints dropped, says a University of Alberta researcher.

“This is a reactionary move to, if not to make those human rights cases moot, to certainly mitigate any possible damages,” said Kris Wells, a researcher at the Institute for Sexual Minority Studies and Services at the U of A. “It seems that the government has gone through this haphazard way of addressing healthcare issues without significant consultation or research from the beginning. So what we see is this constant changing of position or backtracking around announcements.”

In health care alone, the government has reversed decisions to close hospital beds in Edmonton and Calgary, move many mental health patients from Alberta Hospital into community beds, centralize ambulance service and move forward with changes to a seniors drug plan.

Wells sees much the same thing happening with cuts to sex-change surgeries. “Why is this only coming after the fact — after the negative reaction and the human rights complaints, not to mention the incredible stress and turmoil that announcement made on individual lives?” Wells said.

Last April, Alberta Health and Wellness announced it would end approximately $700,000 in annual funding to cover sex-change surgeries for about 16 people each year. At first, only those who had received funding approval for surgery by March 2009 would be covered.

The move was a purely cost-saving measure, said then-health minister Ron Liepert. But he soon expanded the eligibility to those who had started paying for their own hormonal medication in preparation for gender reassignment.

Now, the surgeries will be offered to those who are in “an irreversible physical state between sexes” because they’ve begun hormone therapy or had some preliminary surgeries, such as mastectomies.

“Many people were already along the path,” said John Tuckwell, spokesman for Alberta Health and Wellness. “It wasn’t fair to not include them.” He said the Health Department heard from many patients and psychiatrists after the funding cut was announced, which prompted the government to include more people.

“You can’t do a lot of consultation on budget decisions (before the budget) because of course, those decisions are announced as part of government budget,” Tuckwell said.

He said widening the eligibility requirements wasn’t motivated by a wish to stop human rights complaints. At least 50 people filed complaints related to the funding cuts.

“The decision remains that that program is no longer available in Alberta,” Tuckwell said, noting that other provinces don’t provide transgender surgical programs. “It was a decision about cost. Here was a program that for a small number of people was costing $700,000 odd thousand a year. … I think there are different opinions as to whether it’s medically necessary.”

Wells questions the cost-saving explanation. “We’re talking about the need for cost-saving now and we’re talking about reducing the healthcare budget this year and next year,” Wells said. “It’s not going to save them any money until 2015, so why go through this whole process then? It seems more ideologically driven then economically driven.” He said it will cost the government more in the long term since people will need treatment for depression, anxiety and other medical problems.